Thursday, September 24, 2009

India-Saudi Arabia bilateral



India and Saudi Arabia
signed a new amended air bilateral accord over the weekend which has allowed a massive increase in capacity allocations for all designated national carriers. The main highlights of the new air bilateral accord are as follows:


a) Both the countries are allowed to operate with multiple designations. For the designated Indian carriers, the points of call in Saudi Arabia are – Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam and Medinah. For Saudia, the points of call are – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Calicut and Lucknow. The capacity entitlement is 75 services per week with any aircraft subject to maximum capacity of 20,000 seats in each direction.


b) The capacity entitlement for the designated airline of each side has been enhanced from the existing 8,500 seats/week with frequencies not exceeding 31 services to 20,000 seats/week with frequencies not exceeding 75 services per week.

c) Bangalore, Calicut and Lucknow were granted additional points of call for the Saudi designated carriers apart from the existing Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Cochin and Hyderabad.

d) Medinah has been granted as additional point of call for India designated carrier apart from the existing Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam.


e) The capacity to be operated by the Indian designated carriers to/from Dammam for which an open sky policy has been declared by the Government of Saudi Arabia, shall not be counted against the capacity entitlements available to the Indian carriers.
f) Both sides have also agreed for the open sky with regard to all cargo services with full third and fourth freedom traffic rights.

Comments:

Could someone please inform Mr Mallaya that instead of wasting his money by using A 332s to fly daily BOM-SIN + BOM-HKG each respectively, it would be more profitable for Kingfisher Airlines to use the A 332s on higher density and higher yielding India-Saudi Arabia routes from BOM/DEL/BLR.

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